A Story That May Never Be Told
This is Steven Petrick Posting.
There are few things that I take a proprietary attitude towards when it comes to Star Fleet Battles. It is SVC's game universe, he created it, and I willingly follow his lead. I consider this a good thing, because it keeps one mind behind all decisions and that helps keep things as consistent as they are. It is a big universe, and ever expanding, so even SVC can be forgiven a few slips.
Not too long ago (seems almost like yesterday) a player looked at a proposed Battle Group situation, and flatly declared from the height of his own brilliance that it was impossible of a solution. I will not claim that he was wrong (perhaps it was impossible for some game Empires). But I had been operating Klingon star ships for a very long time, and had a tremendous amount of experience both fighting against and commanding ships and task forces of the various other Empires. Apprised of the impossibility of the battle group, I sat down and from the depths of my own experiences announced that I could do the mission with a specific force with the BPV point. This earned me a rather sneering retort that obviously my force could accomplish the task, but it was still impossible (I have not really been able to figure that one out).
As time passed, I played around with the force, and gradually developed the outline of a story to cover why the particular units were attacking the particular objective. This grew and grew, until it is something that I feel very possessive of. So much so that it has become something I do not want to let go of, unless it is going to be done "my way".
I think there could be a very good character driven story made of it, although I know "I" could never write it. SVC sometimes considers it, but he wants to change so much (i.e., to make it truly his and not mine any longer) that I am loathe to release it to him, and indeed would rather at this juncture see it destroyed then allow anyone to change my design.
A sad tale, but true. Perhaps one day I will win the lottery, and have time to sit down with someone who can write and will adhere to my design. Of course, at that point we may discover that what I am so possessive of is just the worst kind of drivel. Such things have happened historically, and as noted, I am not a writer myself. Mostly because I have an incredibly difficult time imagining motivations that I cannot myself understand. I know the word treason, for example, and I know people who have committed treason (Jane Fonda for example has committed treason no matter how often people claim she did not), but I cannot grasp that mentality. I cannot imagine a sum of money great enough that I would betray my country. So how can I truly understand and explain the motivations of major characters in my imagined story who ARE committing treason, and treason most foul?
There are few things that I take a proprietary attitude towards when it comes to Star Fleet Battles. It is SVC's game universe, he created it, and I willingly follow his lead. I consider this a good thing, because it keeps one mind behind all decisions and that helps keep things as consistent as they are. It is a big universe, and ever expanding, so even SVC can be forgiven a few slips.
Not too long ago (seems almost like yesterday) a player looked at a proposed Battle Group situation, and flatly declared from the height of his own brilliance that it was impossible of a solution. I will not claim that he was wrong (perhaps it was impossible for some game Empires). But I had been operating Klingon star ships for a very long time, and had a tremendous amount of experience both fighting against and commanding ships and task forces of the various other Empires. Apprised of the impossibility of the battle group, I sat down and from the depths of my own experiences announced that I could do the mission with a specific force with the BPV point. This earned me a rather sneering retort that obviously my force could accomplish the task, but it was still impossible (I have not really been able to figure that one out).
As time passed, I played around with the force, and gradually developed the outline of a story to cover why the particular units were attacking the particular objective. This grew and grew, until it is something that I feel very possessive of. So much so that it has become something I do not want to let go of, unless it is going to be done "my way".
I think there could be a very good character driven story made of it, although I know "I" could never write it. SVC sometimes considers it, but he wants to change so much (i.e., to make it truly his and not mine any longer) that I am loathe to release it to him, and indeed would rather at this juncture see it destroyed then allow anyone to change my design.
A sad tale, but true. Perhaps one day I will win the lottery, and have time to sit down with someone who can write and will adhere to my design. Of course, at that point we may discover that what I am so possessive of is just the worst kind of drivel. Such things have happened historically, and as noted, I am not a writer myself. Mostly because I have an incredibly difficult time imagining motivations that I cannot myself understand. I know the word treason, for example, and I know people who have committed treason (Jane Fonda for example has committed treason no matter how often people claim she did not), but I cannot grasp that mentality. I cannot imagine a sum of money great enough that I would betray my country. So how can I truly understand and explain the motivations of major characters in my imagined story who ARE committing treason, and treason most foul?
posted by Federation Commander at 7:46 PM
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